The Compass ran its own operating system, GRiD-OS. Its specialized software and high price (US$8–10,000) meant that it was limited to specialized applications. The main buyer was the U.S. government. NASA used it on the Space Shuttle during the early 1980s, as it was both powerful and lightweight. The military Special Forces also purchased the machine, as it could be used by paratroopers in combat.

Along with the Gavilan SC and Sharp PC-5000 released the following year, the GRiD Compass established much of the basic design of subsequent laptop computers, although the laptop concept itself owed much to the Dynabook project developed at Xerox PARC from the late 1960s. The Compass company subsequently earned significant returns on its patent rights as its innovations became commonplace.

The portable Osborne 1 computer sold at around the same time as the GRiD, was more affordable and more popular, and ran the popular CP/M operating system. But, unlike the Compass, the Osborne was not a laptop and lacked the Compass's refinement and small size.

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On 17 December 1983, fictional character Murray Bozinsky was shown using a Grid Compass 1101 in the American television program Riptide (Season 1, Episode 3: “Somebody's Killing the Great Geeks of America”).

Grid Compass laptops were used in the film Aliens (1986) as the remote consoles for the sentry guns deployed to defend the Marines' positions.[4]